A Bus Ride With Zigzag
by Laura A
Summary: Most people can't even stand a minute with the crazy Zigzag. How long could the man who drives the boys from their homes to Camp Green Lake and his daughter last?
1. That Pretty Girl

I do not own anything Lous Sachar owns. We don't share stuff, I never even met the guy!

Bus Ride With Zigzag

"Alright, kid. I'm gonna lay down a few rules for you before this bus ride starts." said the large man in a beige button up shirt and jeans.

Ricky looked at him, puzzled. He didn't expect to even talk to this man the whole way.

"You see that pretty young lady over there?" the man pointed to the end of the bus. Ricky stuck his head out of the seat and looked behind him, making his curly hair bounce. Sure enough, there was a girl sitting in the very last seat of the bus. Or the first. Depends how you are looking.

The girl was sitting down nearest the window, looking down and looking very shy. Ricky could only see her head and half her shirt.

She had on a blue baseball cap wich covered her eyes. Her shirt was tight and striped with many different colours of the rainbow. Her hair was a dark brown with lovely blonde streaks here and there. It was very straight. Her hair matched nicely with her dark skin.

The driver's daughter glanced over at Ricky, and he smiled. Thay made her look straight back down.

"Eyes here, kid!" barked the man as he snapped his fingers numerous times. Ricky jumped from the sudden noise and turned to the driver.

"But you asked me if I saw the pretty lady over there, and I wanted to be able to say yes." said Ricky in his thick Texan accent. His words made the large man glare down at him and the girl in the back of the bus slightly blush. She took it as if Ricky was calling her pretty. He honestly didn't have an opinion.

"Don't you be smart with me, boy!" the angry man pointed his finger at Ricky with a mean glare. He turned around and sat down in his chair, pulling the lever to shut the doors.

"That's not hard for me to do..." Ricky muttered. The mad eyes of the bus driver looked at the boy through the mirror. "What did you say, boy!" he yelled out. The girl in the back laughed loudly making Ricky look back at her and smile.

The bus started up and headed off. Ricky was more relaxed then most boys would of been in his shoes. He was kind of excited, happy to get away from the society he hated. He never regretted burning down that portable classroom but...when his mother cried and his father was horribly angry at him, Ricky was a little dissapointed in himself.

Then something came over him. "Excuse me..." he began, looking at the bus driver. The bus driver was listening to some blues tunes on the radio. So, Ricky simply spoke up. "Uh, sir!" he said.

The bus driver, his eyes hidden behind his now put on sun glasses just looked about on the road as he bobbed his head and hummed to the music.

All of a sudden, Ricky heard footsteps. The driver's daughter seemed to have gotten up, and she was walking along the bus, her hands upon each seat she passed almost pushing her along the way. Although, when she passed Ricky she let go of that habit.

The girl bent over to her father.

"What do you doing over here, Lizzy!" he said giving her a quick stare through his mirror.

"Lizzy..." Ricky thought aloud.

"Dad, the boy wants to ask you something. Could you pay a little more attention?" she said, now looking at her dad through his mirror.

The man sighed and and looked over at Ricky, then back at his daughter. "I'm a busy man, I got no time for him. You help him out..." he rambled on in frustration. Lizzy gave a calm sigh and turned around to Ricky, throwing a weak smile.

She walked along, watching her shoes, and then sat herself down in the seat across from him. "I'm sorry, my dad doesn't like young people very much...well, people in general."

Ricky glanced over at the driver.

"He can't hear us." she noted and then smiled less weakly then before.

Ricky nodded and she slowly nodded, her head looking to the ground. Then, she looked back up at him again. "What was it that you wanted to ask my dad?" 


	2. No Switching Seats

"Er... you're dad told me to look at you, so I did and... well... he got mad at me and never explained why he needed me to." Ricky responded nervously, looking down.

"Oh..." Lizzy looked disappointed. "He just, probably doesn't want you to talk to me. He's...like that." She frowned and stood up. "I should go back, I bet." And with a weak smile, Lizzy walked over to the back of the bus where she felt she belonged.

Ricky frowned, too. He was slightly mad that he no longer had somebody to talk to. He looked out the window to see a plain view. Trees and grass were all that were in site, so, obviously, they were not near Camp Green Lake yet for Ricky was told that this camp was to be in the desert. Ricky found this view boring, so he looked at the bus driver. That man was far too harsh, even on his own daughter!

The pyromaniac slowly slipped out of his seat, trying to be as quiet as a mouse. When he was out, he started taking tiny steps backwards, so he could keep an eye on the driver. As he drew closer and closer to Lizzy, she noticed him.

"What the hell are you doing!" she huffed in a loud whisper.

Ricky just grinned, not even looking at the confused girl as he made his final step and sat down in the seat across her. "Hey." He greeted with a nice smile.

"My dad will straight, dry MURDER you!" she glared at Ricky, her impression of him now being an immature boy.

"If he sees me." Ricky corrected, a finger in the air as if he were a professor.

Lizzy tilted her head slightly and bit her lip. This was a strange guy, indeed. But, he was funny, brave and kind so she smiled and let out a small giggle. He'd make good company, she thought.

"You know, thinking about it, I kind of don't blame your dad." Ricky put his arms behind his head and relaxed in his seat.

"Why the hell would you say something like that?" she questioned, her face looking quite puzzled.

"You say 'hell' a lot." He laughed. "If you must know, it's all quite simple." Ricky began, but then interrupted himself by yawning. The poor guy didn't get much sleep the night before, but he was to blame. "He's driving convicts in here! No doubt he doesn't want you making friends with guys like me." he sat back up properly as he had said this.

Lizzy frowned. It was all very clear now. She felt stupid and for once in the whole time she met Ricky, she noticed that she was younger than him. "You don't seem like a bad person..." Lizzy mentioned. 


End file.
